Attracted to brands on social media?

Time spent on social networking and blogging sites is triple what it was last year, accounting for 17% of all time spent on the Internet. The average number of minutes an individual spends on Facebook has increased 83% this year. Teens send and receive an average of over 2,000 texts a month and 89% of adult Gen Yers watch online videos, 36% of them every day.

When it comes to brands on social media, the numbers are equally staggering:

Starbucks has over 5 million Facebook fans and Coca-Cola has 4 million. Zappos’ CEO has 1.5 million Twitter followers. Over half of the Gen Yers in my Gen BuY survey want to get promotional texts from their favorite brands. Samsung’s Extreme Sheep YouTube video has had nearly 10 million views since it was posted in March.

The numbers are impressive, but what’s interesting is that those fans, followers and viewers are actively seeking out information and connection with brands. They’re not passive recipients (or active avoiders) of advertisements – they want to engage.

And no generation wants to engage more then Gen Y. For starters, they write over half of all online reviews.

The question is: why? What are young consumers getting out of their social media relationships with brands and retailers? Here are three themes that surfaced repeatedly in interviews.

Status: Shoppers feel like smart “insiders” when they learn about special deals, new product arrivals and promotions through tweets, emails, Facebook fan pages, and by visiting shopping sites like Retailmenot. The medium has the potential to create intimacy at scale. Says, Ricardo, 23, “If I have a problem I use Twitter to complain to the company. I get much better service than I’d get if I called or sent an email, which is very impersonal and they don’t really care.”

When marketers reward fans and followers with exclusive freebies, promotions and information they create loyalty by elevating the status of their followers.

Connection: In our increasingly fragmented and visually oriented world, people often connect with others using brands as the vehicle. It’s like wearing the school colors – a way to bond and identify like-minded others. Sites that facilitate connection between consumers are beloved for more than the merchandise – it’s because of their ability to create a community. Kaboodle’s popular shopping site does just that, as do Facebook fan pages like Converse’s where members can share photos and ideas with other fans – united by their common interest in the brand.

Connecting consumers to each other also connects them to the brand.

Play and Role Play: All generations have played with roles and yearned for feedback in their teens and early twenties as a way to figure out who they are. Today’s young generation has an arsenal of tools unimaginable to their parents.

Many of the Gen Yers we interviewed showcase their personality by showing off their interests – which are often the products they like – on their Facebook pages. Stacy, a freshman at UCLA, says that she loads photos of herself sporting new outfits “within days” of purchase.

Other Gen Yers “play” by customizing products on retail websites such as Zazzle, putting styles together on Polyvore, and altering their own look on Tazz, where you can download a headshot and “try-on” new hair styles, makeup and sunglasses. Teen Gen Yers try, and often buy, outfits and equipment for their avatars in virtual worlds. Today they can even purchase the same real outfits for themselves. Particularly for the guys, nothing tops gaming when it comes to exploring roles and identities.

Marketers are using technology to tap-into the natural urge of young people to explore their identities.

This blog is adapted from one I wrote for CNBC. The research referenced is from my book Gen BuY: How Tweens, Teens and Twenty-Somethings are Revolutionizing Retail.